Chapter 87

Time: Thursday, May 14, 2019 7:31 PM

Aggie frowned as the elevator wall behind her slid aside. Her carriage was opening into a very small and unlit space, even smaller than the carriage. There was at least one piece of good news though. Her audio and visual links were still active. After discussing her plan with her group, Aggie gathered her gear and left the carriage, leaving one backpack to block the door from closing.

A moment’s inspection revealed an apparent dead end. The outside of the carriage was a bare equilateral triangle with four-meter sides and the same height. There was nothing inside the chamber except their lost Leophones in two of the triangular corners. Aggie scooped them up and dropped them in her pockets. She then looked around and shook her head in dismay at the tiny area. There were no lights, not even any air vents. Aggie moved her hands across the smooth burnished metal of the two walls opposite her carriage. What to do?

“No buttons anywhere?” asked Suvarna from White Mall. She was staring intently at the video images Aggie was sending.

“No. This place is absolutely blank.”

“You sure about no air vents?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. There’s one in the carriage. But out here there’s nothing at all. If I let the carriage door close, I’ll have just this triangle room of air to breathe. Hell ... Ashley, what was the last pyramid room I was in?”

“You mean the physical carriage zone?”

“Yes.”

“I’m looking it up on the now. You jumped X-5 to get there. That’s a jump size of 262 from the origin of the base ring and ... carriage 395 on the 31^st floor.”

“Everybody,” Aggie said quietly, “If you’re ever in the pyramid, do not jump D-5 from carriage 395. It’ll bring you ... here ... Emily, what do I do?”

“I think you’ll have to let the carriage door close.”

“Really? This triangle would be a horrible place to ... to be trapped.” Aggie had stopped herself from saying, “to die.”

“It’s your only option for changing your state.”

“But my carriage is my only source of air.”

Back at the Hilton, Emily squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. “I know,” she whispered.

Before she could change her mind, Aggie pulled her backpack and unwedged the door. After a few seconds, she was surrounded in inky blackness and silence. “Boy, this is pretty gruesome,” she thought, but she felt too embarrassed to voice her despair to her friends. Instead she ran her hand along the wall of her closed carriage for a moment, and as her hand left that side of the triangular room and advanced to the next, Aggie felt the wall start to move. Immediately light and a faint breeze filled her space.

The second wall had opened to reveal a new 3-meter by 4-meter area, the same size as the carriage she just left, but this new area was completely bare of any controls. It had just the simple air vents and lights of a closet. Or a trapdoor...

“Aggie,” Emily said over the network. “I advise you jump it now. I don’t know if the door will open again if you let it close. Jump now. I’m worried the system won’t give you multiple chances.”

“What about the third wall?”

“Yeah, I know it’s a mystery. Perhaps it opens too. Aggie, I don’t want to spend the time to try to research this. My gut feeling is to grab this opportunity while we can. Don’t reject the open path. Jump the trapdoor.” And then a quiet plea. “Please?”

“Oh, I agree with you, Emily. I was just taking a last look around.” After moving all her gear into the new area, Aggie sighed and let the four-meter door slide closed.

And immediately a three-meter side of her carriage started to slide open. Aggie slowly stepped out into the light with her gear. And then she started to giggle. “It looks just like the second floor of a mall store! I’m heading downstairs!”

A moment later Akiko spoke up. “I’m picking you up on the mall monitors! You’re in Green Mall! Aggie, welcome home! You’re very close to the hub, spiral mark 438 meters, the 360 degree position. You’re on the outside arc, a restaurant called Ruthie’s Kitchen.”

Ann was next to Akiko at the Hilton. She pulled back in her chair happy but with a puzzled look. “Aggie, we searched Ruthie’s months ago. We searched all the stores at the 360 degree marks.” Ann was referring to the time shortly after the discovery of the trapdoors leading to the lounge rooms of Black and White Malls. Both trapdoors were located at the 360 degree mark of their respective spirals.

Aggie blinked as she realized Ann’s point. “You’re right. Let me check that closet again.” She jogged up the stairs and a moment later said, “Wow. My trapdoor, it’s full of food items again. I just jumped through here a moment ago and it was completely bare. And the closet opens from the four-meter side now. I exited from the three-meter side.”

“Well, isn’t that what you expected?” asked Kiyoko. “That rotation to a perpendicular wall on the trapdoor exit is standard behavior. You have to remember it’s not the same carriage, Aggie.” Kiyoko finished by adding, “It’s a pity our training didn’t cover trapdoors more thoroughly.”

“Wow,” said Aggie. “Your lessons covered trapdoors? My lessons didn’t mention them at all.”

“Really?” replied Kiyoko. “Interesting. We janitors really need to compare our trainings more carefully. The trapdoors in the White and Black spirals are entrance trapdoors. You can expect them to be empty. But the closet in Ruthie’s is a destination trapdoor. There can easily be storage materials in exits when they’re not in use.”

“Aggie,” said Fatima, “we have a whole bunch of people here at the Hilton that would love to come by and pick you up in a sidecar.”

“Ah, that’s sweet but don’t bother. I’m less than 900 meters from jumping home. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.” Aggie let herself out of Ruthie’s, and after relocking the restaurant walked rapidly to Hex Hall.

When she got there Aggie had a minor decision to make. Immediately on her left in the hexagonal hall was the entrance to the Black Mall spiral. She could also walk to her right, pass over Blue Mall and enter the White Mall spiral. After a second’s hesitation, Aggie moved to her right.

There was nothing wrong with Esau’s Bar and Grill. It was a nice place and a favorite of Mark and Toshi. The couple would sometimes joke it was the restaurant of their one date before they became attached. But Aggie felt like visiting the store of the White Mall trapdoor. The food there were just too interesting to pass up.

The name of the store was Trumpets & Crumpets, and it held a huge variety of the famous English yeast breads, as well as a wide assortment of related condiments, maple syrup, honey, fine cheese spreads, and all sorts of jams and jellies. It was Ann who first guessed that the store was using the word trumpets for the condiments.

Aggie was at the store. It took a few seconds to unlock and relock the entrance. She paused for a second to open a drawer and grab a bag of her favorite rye-flour crumpets, and then she ran quickly to a familiar closet, a backpack in each arm and a joyous smile on her face. Aggie was home with her family a moment later.

The next day.

Time: Friday, June 1, 2019 6:17 AM

Jada was paddling her kayak along the northern half of the Missisquoi an hour after sunrise, heading towards an area of the northwestern shore that her group had visited two days ago. The mission then had been relatively short, walking the perimeter of their search grid and informing the large predators that they would soon be returning. Over the past week, Jada had learned to listens to the loud chatter of the birds and small tree animals when they returned to their landing sites. The loud noise was an indication that the cats got the message and were cooperating. “Ah, peaceful co-existence,” Jada thought as she paddled. “You can’t beat it.”

And what was their peace treaty with Dinofelis? The basis was to talk to the cats in a language they could understand. When Jada’s team wanted to search an area, they would first claim it a day or two before by walking the boundary of the area and urinating on as many rocks and tree trucks as they could. For the next few days, the area would be remarkably free of the big cats.

They were very smart animals, Jada thought. A few encounters with an unknown species, in this case human, and suddenly the entire Dinofelis population was agreeable to staying out of the humans’ way. Jada knew she couldn’t push it. If her group stomped into unclaimed territory and acted too aggressively, the big cats would be very annoyed. And if her group did something stupid, Jada was under no illusion that the cats wouldn’t grab an opportunity for a quick meal. After all, the cats were quick-strike assassination hunters. That was their nature. But if you treated them with respect and talked to them in a language they could understand and gave them time to move out of your way, that’s what they would do. Smart animals.